Speed Queen distributor here in Queensland all new showroom

[brisnat81]

We had a great time.

The imperial washer has an RRP of over $4k. The commercial Miele of the same size with options and a heater is $6k. The account manager is very aware that in the front load market they are currently flogging a wounded horse.

The main reason the heater is important in au is the 2 hour plus cycle times which she said are necessary to achieve the 80% dirt removal score needed to get a water rating (ie the wash water will be cold well before the cycle is over) and the fact that Aussie houses legally have to have tempering valves on the hot water supply that limit the temp to 47degC.

The fit and finish on the imperial set is definitely more commercial than domestic. The stickers are wavery. The dryer handle doesn't fit in the hole properly. The stainless panels are wavery and have lots of hard solid edges. They look impressive from a distance but not like $4k worth of impressive from up close.

I got to play with the HEtoploader for the first time. For the wash it fills up with normal levels of water, but it has intermittent wash and soak periods. I wasn't with it for the rinse but I assume it is grey water rinsing as the usage tag claims only 107l for the entire cycle.

We had a great night. Thank you again Leon for the invitation.

Cheers

Nathan

 

[washer111]

I would like to see a water heater in the SQ lineup, but it isn't something that is too critical with our (almost) boiling supplies of solar-heated water, if people were willing to alter the ideas about doing laundry - If you want "Warm," you'll select "Hot," and if you require a "Hot" wash, you'll want to temper the wash-bowl first.  

Quick Note on tempering: When we got the new water heater installed, the government regulation seemed to only require a tempering valve for the bathroom and perhaps kitchen areas of the house, but the laundry was exempt. That's in Western-Australia - so maybe Queensland is different in that aspect. 

 

Another Quick-Question: Is Grey-Water rinsing where the machine only partially drains and refills, or is it the spin-rinse program many machines of today have?

 

[brisnat81]

Hi washer111

Technically you're correct about tempering. It only needs to be limited to 47degc in the bathroom.

However unless you redesign the plumbing on an existing house or specifically request a complex design on a new house the plumber just sticks on valve directly on the tank outlet.

You also need to remember that almost all appliances state the hot water inlet should be no more than 60deg C so you still need to temper solar hotwater anyways.

Cheers

Nathan

 

[frigilux]

Wow, thanks for all the great photos! That stainless steel front-load pair is sweet.

 

[kenmorebd]

Re: the wringer

I have seen that same wringer washer at two local speed queen dealers in new england. I think it is some kind of dummy /demo display speedqueen sends the dealers.

Andy

 

[supersuds]

SQ wringer

Ah, should have known. At first glance it looked new!

 

[rapunzel]

Quote - "I can see why Australians would like internal heaters, with limited/no central hot water available."

Hi John,

That would have been the case 50 or 60 years ago. You will find that Australian homes have pretty much the same hot water setups that you get in the US. Rheem water heaters have been available in Australia since 1939 and 80% of households still use top loaders that are directly connected to a hot water outlet. Unless you were thinking of Austria - which, apparently, is an easy mistake to make. Austria, Austraya, I can see where you are coming from.

Here in NSW this is what they say re tempering devices for sanitary fixtures. The requirements are: Min water storage temperature Hot water must be stored at a minimum of 60oC so as to inhibit the growth of legionella bacteria. Maximum delivery temperatures: Every new hot water installation to sanitary fixtures used mainly for personal hygiene purposes (that is in bathrooms and ensuites) must deliver hot water at a temperature not exceeding - (a) 43.5o C for early childhood centres, primary and secondary schools and nursing homes and similar facilities for the young, aged, sick, or disabled; (b) 50 o C in all other buildings, including new houses.[this post was last edited: 2/22/2014-09:07]

 

[rapunzel]

On the issue of Speed Queen going down the dumbed down path for the laundry illiterati in the US - we can only hope that they will make special machines for Australia (pronounced Austraya, but is not Austria). For every pre-set prgram and automatic sensing function they should have an override to manual. F&P have this feature on all of their TOL machines, so it can't be that hard to do. Maybe somebody could suggest this to Speed Queen since they may not have thought of it?

 

[thor]

Export models

Nathan, are all these export models "true" 220V/240V/50Hz units, meaning they are manufactured for this line voltage and frequency, or are they just regular 115V/60Hz units with a step down transformers installed at the Factory?

Thanks,
Emilio

 

[thor]

Gas dryer

Nathan, I forgot to ask if a gas (natural) dryer is sold which matches the AWNA62 washer.

Thanks,
Emilio

 

[brisnat81]

Hi rapunzel

I agree on the options front. A cycle modifier knob for normal and short, plus a heater on off switch.

With the heater on, cold is 30degc warm is 40degc and hot is 60degc.

Then they've got enough functionality to get it up there feature wise in the non us markets to justify the enormous cost.

Emilio, I'm not sure about the internals. The neptunes have a transformer that runs them here. Perhaps the SQ is the same which is why they've not attempted localization even with the higher voltage. The TL machines are true 240v. I've never dug into a front loader though

I assume there are stil gas dryers but Leon might have a better idea than me.

 

[washer111]

The NSW Government is starting to raise my blood pressure about keeping water stored at 60º again.... I did raise that issue before, in a "rant" manner. If the government didn't mandate such hot temperatures, it would save quite a lot of energy, whether that be Gas or Electricity. Although I don't get why this mandate doesn't affect Heat-Pump units. The one's I've seen can only go as hot as 48º (120ºF)...

 

I would also be interested to see whether the SQ is truly 240v, or merely stepped down. That might explain in depth why we (don't) have the water heater... I assume some fancy relay setup to overcome that, if they persisted with the transformer.

 

[rockland1]

Speed Queen

Very nice presentation! Another QUALITY product made in WISCONSIN, USA!

 

[Chetlaham]

Thanks!

How does the AWNA62 compare to the American design? The rim looks different. In the advertising literature it shows a direct drive pump, did they do away with the electric one?

 

Fascinating to see the foreign designs!  

 

[mrb627]

Perhaps...

Alliance is working on a resource saver model that will recirculate rinse water during low speed spinning. Which I would prefer to the partial drain system I have heard about.

Malcolm

 

[supersuds]

Thanks, Olav. I seem to remember a discussion of 1960s Australian toploaders with internal heaters that talked about limited availability of hot water in Australian homes, and when Leon mentioned a need for the new Speed Queens to have heaters, I added 2+2 and got 6!

 

[mielerod69]

Inner workings

Hi All,

here is the model on our shop floor with the front cut out to show the workings. The motor is assembled in Mexico and the AU version has an electric pump.

 

[Chetlaham]

Electric pump?

I have seen it before, but why does every single export machine have an electric pump? Is it a listing requirement outside of the US?

 

Also, anyone have a tech sheet wiring diagram, I wonder how the pump is configured with the machine, ie can the machine be advanced into spin drain.

 

[mayfan69]

Electric pumps....

This was discussed in this thread unless you missed it.....

 

 

 

 

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?50379

 

[combo52]

New Speed Queen Distributor

Great thread Leon, Hopefully the new distributor will do well, it looks like they invested some money in setting it up nicely.

I also love that vertical blue SQ sign, I put a call into our SQ sales rep to see if we can get one for our new showroom.

I am sure that electric drain pumps are not required outside the US Robert, but even in the US only SQ TLers and two WP DD stack machines still have a main motor driven water pump. It makes little sense to use over TEN TIMES more electricity to drain a washer 800 watts vs 80 watts, and best of all the separate drain pump not only makes belt changes a simple do-it-yourself operation on SQ TLers but should also make the belt last much longer as well.

I love the claim on the TL washers placard where it says Energy Efficient 1/2 HP motor, this is one the oldest tricks in the advertising world, take one of your worst features and call it an advantage, LOL. Conventional split-phase motors use 3-4 times more power to run a washing machine as the now more common 3 phase inverter style motors.

Fortunately SQ does not do this very often. These inflated and contrived claims are what really started to turn me off to Maytag in the early 1970s when I was working for them. I sat through many sales and service meetings listing to MT people telling us how the HOH dryer was the best dryer ever designed and built while all the while they had already planed on scrapping the whole design in favor of a more WP-SQ-GE-WH style dryer.